Aberdeen Council accuse Alex Salmond of bullying

FRANK URQUHART

FIRST Minister Alex Salmond and the leaders of Aberdeen’s ruling Labour group traded insults today as their simmering feud exploded in public.

In a series of letters, Mr Salmond accused the group of being in danger of bringing the “kamikaze” council into isrepute.

And he claimed none of Scotland’s other councils behaved in the “extreme manner of Aberdeen City Council over a range of issues”.

The Labour group accused Mr Salmond of being a “First Minister who seems to be totally out of control” and branded his comments as “the despicable actions of a natural bully”.

The row erupted after the council called for an inquiry into claims that Mr Salmond made an unauthorised visit to a school, Bramble Brae primary, just days before the Aberdeen Donside by-election.

And Labour councillor Angela Taylor was reported as calling on the government to withdraw funding for the Scottish Open because of the gender policy of Royal Aberdeen Golf Club.

Mr Salmond stated that the school visit had been impromptu. He said in a letter to Valerie Watts, the council’s chief executive: “The visit was private. There was no media or party or government officials. Therefore, to have the visit described in the terms of the council motion as a matter of ‘professional conduct’ is ludicrous.”

Responding to the claims of Councillor Taylor, Mr Salmond described the remarks as “yet another issue on which a member seems intent on inflicting reputational and economic damage on the city”.

Council leader Barney Crockett, leader of the council’s Labour-led rainbow coalition, claimed: “We have a First Minister who seems to be totally out of control. He has confused a number of issues to create a smokescreen around points the chief executive raised, but has failed to explain his actions at Bramble Brae.

“The nature of his attack on the chief executive to cover his tracks and use of political issues to do that is wildly inappropriate. I consider these the despicable actions of a natural bully.”

Willie Young, the council’s finance convener, also accused Mr Salmond of acting like a bully. He said: “This is an astonishing attack on our council. He is just an absolute bully.

“Mr Salmond has given us nothing. We are the lowest-funded council in Scotland. We believe firmly that he will give anything to any authority with an SNP administration.”

Councillor Crockett went back on the offensive yesterday, accusing the First Minister of being “untruthful” about his visit to Bramble Brae School.

He declared: “These letters are an extraordinary intervention.

“He can’t even tell the truth when he’s put on the spot. Alex Salmond says his visit to Bramble Brae was ‘impromptu’, ‘unplanned’ and ‘totally private’. If that was the case, why did the SNP press office issue a calling notice to the media?

“Alex Salmond clearly is so used to telling different people different things that he can’t even remember what the truth is any more.”

He continued: “We know Alex Salmond will bully anyone if they dare to speak out against him. But these letters are the latest examples of how low the First Minister will go in attempting to smear those who disagree with him.

“I am demanding an apology and that he withdraws his inaccurate statement. With another lie, Alex Salmond has yet again demeaned the office that he holds.”

Callum McCaig, the leader of the SNP group on the council, backed the First Minister.

He said: “The Labour group’s stance on the Scottish Open is utter madness. I would be very interested to know if their concerns about sexism have been raised with the club at any stage.

“There was certainly no opposition from Labour councillors when the Senior Open was staged there last year. There is not a jot of principle around this.”

Salmond on the council

“No other council behaves in the extreme manner of Aberdeen City Council over a range of issues. I would suggest the majority group are in danger of bringing the council into total disrepute with the knock-on reputational risks that that has for the great city of Aberdeen and its fine people.”

“Am I to understand that your call for the Government to effectively sabotage the event [the Scottish Open] is really the policy of the ruling group of Aberdeen Council? Even by the standards of a council which is becoming known for refusing key investment, this would be a totally insane, even kamikaze position. Please clarify if your remarks are indeed a considered political position or just some pointless political posturing.“

The council on Salmond

“Totally out of control.”

“The despicable actions of a natural bully.”

“Wildly inappropriate.”

“He can’t even remember what the truth is any more.”

“Attempting to smear those who disagree with him.”

“With another lie, Alex Salmond has yet again demeaned the office that he holds.”

This website and its associated newspaper adheres to the Independent Press Standards Organisation's Editors' Code of Practice.
If you have a complaint about editorial content which relates to inaccuracy or intrusion, then contact the
Editor by clicking here.

If you remain dissatisfied with the response provided then you can contact the IPSO by
clicking here.

The Scotsman provides news, events and sport features from the Edinburgh area. For the best up to date information relating to Edinburgh and the surrounding areas visit us at The Scotsman regularly or bookmark this page.

For you to enjoy all the features of this website The Scotsman requires permission to use cookies.

Find Out More ▼

What is a Cookie?

What is a Flash Cookie?

Can I opt out of receiving Cookies?

About our Cookies

Cookies are small data files which are sent to your browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome etc) from a website you visit. They are stored on your electronic device.

This is a type of cookie which is collected by Adobe Flash media player (it is also called a Local Shared Object) - a piece of software you may already have on your electronic device to help you watch online videos and listen to podcasts.

Yes there are a number of options available, you can set your browser either to reject all cookies, to allow only "trusted" sites to set them, or to only accept them from the site you are currently on.

However, please note - if you block/delete all cookies, some features of our websites, such as remembering your login details, or the site branding for your local newspaper may not function as a result.

The types of cookies we, our ad network and technology partners use are listed below:

Revenue Science ►

A tool used by some of our advertisers to target adverts to you based on pages you have visited in the past. To opt out of this type of targeting you can visit the 'Your Online Choices' website by clicking here.

Google Ads ►

Our sites contain advertising from Google; these use cookies to ensure you get adverts relevant to you. You can tailor the type of ads you receive by visiting here or to opt out of this type of targeting you can visit the 'Your Online Choices' website by clicking here.

Digital Analytics ►

This is used to help us identify unique visitors to our websites. This data is anonymous and we cannot use this to uniquely identify individuals and their usage of the sites.

Dart for Publishers ►

This comes from our ad serving technology and is used to track how many times you have seen a particular ad on our sites, so that you don't just see one advert but an even spread. This information is not used by us for any other type of audience recording or monitoring.

ComScore ►

ComScore monitor and externally verify our site traffic data for use within the advertising industry. Any data collected is anonymous statistical data and cannot be traced back to an individual.

Local Targeting ►

Our Classified websites (Photos, Motors, Jobs and Property Today) use cookies to ensure you get the correct local newspaper branding and content when you visit them. These cookies store no personally identifiable information.

Grapeshot ►

We use Grapeshot as a contextual targeting technology, allowing us to create custom groups of stories outside out of our usual site navigation. Grapeshot stores the categories of story you have been exposed to. Their privacy policy and opt out option can be accessed here.

Subscriptions Online ►

Our partner for Newspaper subscriptions online stores data from the forms you complete in these to increase the usability of the site and enhance user experience.

Add This ►

Add This provides the social networking widget found in many of our pages. This widget gives you the tools to bookmark our websites, blog, share, tweet and email our content to a friend.